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We love our Cars, and we love our trucks... The Haulers are my favorite - the trailer gives the cab its character... I didn't really care for the Cab only semis... part of that has to do with Mattel's distribution and case assortment more than anything else... Mattel has released a few box trucks - these remind me of smaller delivery trucks... Two of these were released during Cars; a third has just been released within the last week - the NASCA Truck is one of the new Take Flight vehicles from the Moon Mater Toon.
In this installment of Respect the Classics, we'll take a look at the 3 box trucks - Dustin Mellows, Miles, and NASCA Truck.
Dustin Mellows
Dustin Mellows was the first box truck released... Number 7 in the Mega Size series, it came out in December 2008 on the Race O Rama cardback:
Here's the cardback:
Dustin would have been more fun had the back opened, but it didn't... Still, it was a classy looking truck... It was part of Mega Size case C with 2 Dustin and 1 each of Barney Stormin, Mack, Marco, and Lightning Storm McQueen... Recently I've seen a few at the local flea market, but at $30 per Dustin I'd have a tough time spending that kind of money on it... It's also available on eBay and Amazon... I'm down to my last carded Dustin.
Miles
Miles (Meat Truck Malone) was featured in the last Deluxe (also known as Oversized or Mega Size) case in the US... This Night Skyline cardback case came with 2 Miles, 2 Leroy Traffik with Snow Tires, 1 Elvis, and 1 Marco Axelbender... I saw this at a few Walmart stores and bought 5 of the 6 from the case as this was also the first US release of Marco Axelbender... I probably bought 6 cases worth of Miles, Leroy, and Marco... I still have multiples of Miles and Leroy as of today... Miles was number 24 in the Deluxe series.
As you can tell by looking, Miles was the same truck as Dustin Mellows; it just had eyes in a different position and different color paint...Again since the back didn't open, it wasn't much fun to play with, but it does display nicely.
Here's the cardback:
What's wrong with that picture? Chuck Choke Cables was never released in the US - thank goodness I had several friends in the UK and Canada who helped me out with Chuck Choke Cables.
I believe Miles appears in one of the flashback scenes of Cars.
NASCA Truck
As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, the NASCA Truck has just been released... I was pleasantly surprised to see one of these hidden up top in the Cars aisle of a Toys R US store today...
And as you see from the white tape, there was an Only At Walmart sticker attached to the blister... Supposedly Walmart backed out on this Take Flight case D with 2 NASCA Truck, 2 Autonaut Mater, and 2 Falcon Hawk 1... The TRU I stopped at is close to an Air Force base - the 2 planes and 1 NASCA Truck sold on Friday when they received the case.
2 pieces of white tape over the Walmart sticker:
Again, it's the exact same truck as Dustin Mellows...
Even the eyes are the same:
Still, I'm glad to add it to my collection... Along with Autonaut Mater and Autonaut McQueen, it's one of the 3 Moon Mater diecast Cars that I have... and along with the Space Mission Adventure playset featuring Roger, I've got a good start of the Moon Mater collection... I'm looking forward to the additional Moon Mater diecasts from Mattel - I don't have the Disney Store versions but hope that Mattel will release the Impala in the 1:55 line.
In Conclusion
Note that Dustin and Miles do not have license plates... NASCA has a plate of T0711.
While the boxed trucks are not glamorous Cars, they are functional and useful... I've driven a 26' box truck (Penske Truck) on a couple occasions - once when we moved our oldest son, and then back in 2005 when my wife and I moved... the box truck is very useful... it would be great to see a real box truck filled with diecast Cars show up to our local stores so we could add to our collections... but until then, we'll have to settle for Dustin, Miles, and NASCA... the 3 current box trucks from Cars.
I think we'll be able to find NASCA in the not too distant future... if you need Dustin or Miles, you'll need to work out trades or purchase on the eBay or Amazon market.
Thanks for reading... as always, I appreciate your comments.
7th Nov 
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